4 Days Hiking the Tongariro Northern Circuit

Returning to “normal life” has been a huge adjustment and I have been so swamped and overwhelmed with starting a new job that 6 months without making a single blog post just flew by. I have had this blog post about our 4-day hike in Tongariro National Park half-written for a while. It feels good that I can finally take some time to blog about the travels we have done and hopefully I can even write a bit more about my life as an expat in Sweden.

Danne and I finished up our trip in January where we flew from New Zealand to Fiji. Fiji was exciting for us since we ended up getting engaged! Woohoo! After leaving Fiji, we flew to Hong Kong to break up our long trip home on Saturday. Anyways, last time I wrote, I wrote about our 2-day stay in Rotorua (click on the link to read about it!). After Rotorua, we drove to Tongariro National Park to start our 4-day hiking adventure. I love to do day hikes; however, I had never done a multi-day hike before. I think it is always a good idea to try new things while travelling. There are many hikes in Tongariro National Park, but I booked the Great Walk Tongariro Nothern Circuit back in July. I booked it with very little research and we did the hike in 4 days, which was plenty of time.

So, since I have never done a multi-day hike, you may wonder what spurred me to book this 4-day hike on the Tongariro Northern Circuit. I guess the only real answer I have is I booked it because I am a nerd. I mean it! Mount Ngauruhoe lies in the middle of the Tongariro Northern Circuit and this volcano is famous for portraying Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. Based on my blog post about Hobbiton, you may have already guessed that I am a big fan. I thought: what a lovely idea! I imagined having a nice easy hike while viewing Mount Doom the entire time. However, I have never hiked in an alpine environment and I failed to read up on that. Hence, the “I did very little research” statement.

Thankfully, Danne is a real man of the north, and we had packed or bought all the right clothing for the hike. We arrived at Tongariro National Park a day before the hike to prepare. We stayed at Howards Mountain Lodge and went to Snowzone @ The Alpine Centre where we rented rain pants, the only item I did not have.

Of course, it is tough to pack for everything when doing an around the world trip. Most of our travels were in hot and humid climates, so it feels a bit silly to lug around all this equipment (it is heavy!). I think it was a great idea that we saved this hike towards the end of our travels. This way, we could buy some equipment that we actually needed back in Sweden and we didn’t have to carry the extra weight for too long. Daniel and I bought a lot of our hiking gear in Rotorua at Outdoorsman Headquarters and Taupo at Outdoor Attitude. There are plenty of outdoor stores with qualified workers to help out in New Zealand.

 

Day 1: Whakapapa Village to Mangatepopo Hut

Since we rented a car, we drove to Whakapapa Village and checked in at Whakapapa Visitor Centre Department of Conservation. We also received our parking decal there, which allowed us to park for free for the entire duration of our hike. We really wanted to fly a drone while hiking, but drones are not allowed in the national park. Sad for us, but it did save some weight. You don’t have to sign in if you don’t have a car—but it doesn’t hurt to have them know where you are.

We decided to do this trip clockwise, although it can be done either way since it is a loop. I had a small 28 L backpack and Daniel carried a large 90 L one since we (he) did not want to rent a larger pack for me. It worked well for me though since I am sure we went a lot faster due to me not being weighed down. In an ideal world then we should have both had 40-50 L backpacks. However, we didn’t want to waste the money by renting those plus their respective rain covers.

The first day went very well. We got very little rain and the weather was nippy, but not bad. We were really prepared with multiple layers of clothing since the weather can change so drastically in an alpine environment. The landscape on the first day wasn’t the most exciting, but we did get some good shots of Mount Ngauruhoe (aka Mount Doom, guys!).

Two little hobbits on their way to (well, around) Mount Doom.

Walking from Whakapapa Village to Mangatepopo Hut took us about 3 hours, which was less than the average time of 4 hours I found that a lot of the allotted times in New Zealand were overestimated. This is a sharp contrast to the posted times in Canada, which are made for fit people.

Finally, we arrived at Mangatepopo Hut. This hut was medium in size and had two small dorm rooms for sleeping. We arrived before some others, so we chose a pretty good spot. I am not a huge fan of sleeping on upper bunks since I always have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. There is running water (which we always boiled), gas stoves, and a pit toilet outside. Daniel and I are foodies, so we had lots of food with us to last us during our 4-day trip.

 

Day 2: Mangatepopo Hut to Oturere Hut

This was the hardest day we had on the Tongariro Northern Circuit. Our hut leader (like a park ranger) recommended everyone to leave as early as possible. Well, if you know Danne and me, then you know that we are never on time. So, we left later than everyone else in our hut, which was around 9 am.

I knew the weather would be bad today, so I was dressed in warm clothing. However, right when I hiked started, I was so warm, so I had to change into shorts. I learned my lesson that I should never wear long johns under my hiking pants when its plus degrees outside. However, wearing shorts was definitely too optimistic.

The second day on the Northern Circuit is where you will encounter hikers are on the popular day hike, the Tongariro Crossing. The altitude climb is over 600 metres (starting at 1200 m and going over 1800 m). Since we were already in an alpine area, that small change could lead to drastically different weather. The weather forecast was so bad for our second day that all of the shuttles for the Tongariro Crossing day hike were cancelled. This part of the track can be done as a long day hike. Apparently, the conditions were dangerous for the day hikers, but not for us well-prepared multiday hikers!

About 15 minutes after changing into shorts, it started to rain. We started a steep ascent up Mount Tongariro and then the rain decided to turn into sideways hail. Our feet were completely soaked even though we had good quality hiking boots. That is how bad the rain was. Thank goodness for wool socks, which stay warm even when they are wet.

Hiking up a steep cliff while getting pelted with sideways rain wasn’t my favourite part.

Since Daniel and I were so wet, we were also quite motivated to catch up with the others. This is a bit embarrassing, but we really felt like orcs chasing down some tasty hobbits. You know, “they have women and children” and all those lines from the Two Towers. So, our orcish pace really paid off since we caught up or surpassed almost everyone by the time we reached the top of Mount Tongariro. I mean, during this epic part of the hike we basically took no pictures since it was so cold. At the top of this volcano, there is the Red Crater, which was really cool. There is also one part where it looks like you are on the surface of the moon.

However, it was absolutely freezing and hailing like crazy, so it didn’t feel like a good place to stop. We had lots of buffs and warmer clothes in our bag, but the weather was so bad that I just wanted to get to the next hut instead of having to stop and change in the freezing weather. I just shoved my rain pants over my shorts and vowed that I would walk as fast as possible so I could feel warm. To be honest, there were some pretty unhappy/freezing kids on this part of the hike. So, make sure your child is properly dressed for day 2 if you are hiking as a family!

Once we passed the red crater and started to descend Mount Tongariro, the beautiful sights of the Emerald Lakes met us. Even though we were still freezing, we had to take some pictures here! It was such a pretty view of these lakes as well as the next part of our hike, which was basically Mordor. See, we are big nerds!

Views of the Emerald Lakes while we descended down Mount Tongariro. We couldn’t even get a picture together since it was so cold!

A group of us made our way from the Emerald Lakes to the next hut. This stretch is a lot easier than the ascending climb that we had just done. It’s basically just flat and it looks exactly like the scenes from the second Lord of the Rings film when Samwise and Frodo are about to enter Mordor. All of us were cold and just wanted to beeline to the hut. One of the things that can be difficult about these hikes is the limited room to hang your clothing above the fire. So, make sure you walk fast like we do since it allowed us to dry most of our clothes—which is really important when the weather isn’t nice.

When we finally arrived at Oturere Hut it was time to relax. We did have some luck that the sun briefly showed itself. This is the problem with an alpine environment. There can be drastic changes within the same hour.

Being at the hut is a very cozy feeling. Having cards, a small board game, and a book is a must. There isn’t a lot to do so it was nice that the people we shared our hut with had some board games with them.

The allotted time for this part of the journey was 5 hours but it took us less than 4 hours.

 

Day 3: Oturere Hut to Waihohonu Hut

The weather was a lot more promising today. We really wanted to go back to get a good view of the Emerald Lakes since the pictures from the day before weren’t really joyful. AKA I was freezing and could barely appreciate the view the day before. John, our new friend from Malta, accompanied us for the rest of our walk. Us 3 backtracked to where we had visited the day before.

This time, it was a completely different scene. The sun was shining so 3 days worth of cancelled shuttle buses for the day hike which crosses across where we walked yesterday. As we approached Mount Tongariro, we could see a streamline of little ants on top of the mountain. That’s right, today there were HUNDREDS of people hiking.

View of the Emerald Lakes where it is a little less cold but with more people.

It was worth it to hike back since we did end up getting pictures and I actually look happy in these pictures. I liked that we had the flexibly to backtrack. The sucky thing about there be limited places for camping and sleeping in cabins is that when the dates get released in June, they can be booked up extremely fast. I get the purpose of this for the conservation of the national parks. However, it is hard to book any hike months in advance. I love to plan more than most people, but isn’t travelling one of those times where you try to go with the flow just a little bit?

So, we went through Mordor again and headed back to the Waihohonu Hut for lunch. Danne and I loved hiking with John since he was such a Lord of the Rings expert so we got to learn so much and really geek out over some of the spots we saw that were in the movies.

Danne and I being Gollums in Mordor and an excited John getting ready to hike back down to our original hut.

After lunch, the boys went swimming in the stream nearby. I heard from everyone that did it that it was really refreshing. However, I have never had a love of cold water, and don’t plan on liking it anytime soon either. Then we started the real part of the walk that we should have done from the beginning of this day.

View of the stream near Oturere Hut, boys being boys, and John being the perfect Gollum.

The third day wasn’t that eventful in terms of scenery. It was good that we could pass the time learning about the Lord of the Rings universe since the scenery here was a bit bland.

Finally on the right path to the last hut on our 4-day hike.

We arrived later than the others to the Waihohonu Hut, which was the nicest of the three. There was a lot of space here and we met lots of other cool travellers. This night, I was so glad that Daniel and I had brought so many snacks with us. There is nothing I crave more than salty snacks, cheese, and chocolate when we have burnt so many calories that we did. And the best snack that we took with us was Nutella. Even though it was heavy to carry, nothing made me happier than filling up as many calories as possible with chocolate hazelnut spread.

Since we backtracked, this day was really long. It should have only taken us 3 hours but I backtracking and long lunch easily knocked on another 3 hours.

Day 4: Waihohonu Hut to Whakapapa Village

The last day ended up being more beautiful than I expected. It had quite small hills and I did feel a bit exhausted since we had walked so long the day before. The last day is the longest day, so I did feel a bit ready to be done at some points.

Me hiking along, a much-needed group picture, and John being ecstatic with the great weather

Once we approached Tama Lakes, John, Daniel, and I stopped for lunch. It was sunny but windy. I was just thankful that we had pretty good weather for the last 2 days. The part where we had lunch is a detour to the main walking track. The Tama Lakes were right off the main track and was a perfect place to take a break.

My two handsome hiking companions and John and I enjoying our final lunch together

I was feeling tired and didn’t really feel the desire to go the lookout point at Tama Lakes. However, some other hikers we met had just done it and they said it was really worth it. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for a good picture. So, even though I was tried, I decided to do the detour hike.

I can’t emphasize enough how right those hikers were. It was so beautiful from this view and we were blessed with nice sunny skies. I love the pictures that we captured of Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom)!

Views of Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe, which are two beautiful mountains on the Tongariro Northern Circuit!

We continued our hike back to Whakapapa and took another small detour to see the Taranaki Falls. I found that we met many day hikers in this area who just wanted to go to the Tama Lakes lookout or Taranaki Falls. Compared to the rest of the hike, we saw people who weren’t wearing appropriate hiking clothing. Remember, you are still in an alpine environment! Lucky for them, we had great weather this day, so they weren’t probably too bothered by their choice of clothing.

Okay, so I may have chased some waterfalls on this hike.

While on the way back, I couldn’t contain my excitement when I started to see glimpses of the Chateau Tongariro Hotel in Whakapapa Village. It just made me so happy to know that we were almost done.

How lucky am I to have spent my hike with these two gentlemen?

Finally, we made it! It felt like the walk that just wouldn’t end but eventually, we were at the car and it all seemed to end so quickly. Daniel, John, and I did a quick pit stop at Tawhai Falls (Gollums Pool), which is famous from the second Lord of the Rings where Gollum is surrounded by Faramir and his archers. It was so good getting to meet John since we got an even better and nerdier experience of this hike.

Then it was time to drop John off in town and continue our way onto Napier for Christmas and then Taupo, where we would skydive for the first time! Our hunger levels were through the roof at the end of this hike but we held out until we reached Taupo because there was one meal that we were both craving…McDonalds! I have never eaten a more deserving meal in my life.

Some Overall Feedback

Now that I have done one of the Great Walks, which are well maintained by the Department of Conservation, I wouldn’t shy away from doing the less-maintained trails. For example, we met many people doing the Southern Loop and instead of seeing around 15-20 people per day, you see maybe 1. So, for a more outdoorsy and authentic experience, I would try that.

I would also say that it is smart to bring good food! It is so worth it. We brought candy, chocolate bars, white bread with Nutella, and good cheeses. Don’t bring cans since it is heavy. We took milk packages from our hostel to save money and weight (and I can’t drink coffee without milk!). We also took our instant coffee and tea packages from various hotels throughout our trip. For our main meals, we boiled water (we had a pack of multiuse utensils as well as pots for our crockery) and ate those instant meals. They are expensive but well worth it. We had oatmeal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. Bring good bread with cheese, meat, and some easy to pack veggies. We also had some fruit with us.

I cannot stress enough how much you will appreciate having good snacks. A slab of white bread with Nutella was the perfect fix after a long day of hiking.

I have already written this, but bringing the right clothing is super important. The hike itself is not that strenuous. Sure my feet hurt after 4 days but it wasn’t anything I had to train for. However, alpine conditions are not reliable so warm clothing, as well as rainproof clothing, are a must. We rented my rain pants from Snowzone @ The Alpine Centre and they were excellent.

Packing List:

• Rainproof clothing
• Wool clothing (doesn’t get cold while wet)
• First/base layer clothing (good to sleep in and laze around)
• Hiking pants
• Hiking shorts
• Tank tops (to wear to bed or underneath your layers)
• Sweaters that are good for layering
• Buffs (perfect for blocking the wind)
• Cozy sweater (for lazing around in)
• Undies, hiking socks, and a sports bra
• Hiking boots
• Flip flops (for using to walk to the pit toilet or when hanging outside)
• Compactable sleeping bag with a built-in pillow (look at the temperature it stays warm for)
• Headlamp (so much easier to use this to read or use the pit toilet)
• Large water bottles (you can boil the water at the cabins and refill your water bottle)
• Cooking and utensil kit
• Lighter
• Food (don’t forget the yummy stuff)
• Sunglasses
• Sunscreen
• A minimum amount of hygiene and beauty products (it is heavy so I brought what I needed—which is more than the average person!)
• Medical supplies (Band-Aids are a must for blisters)
• Cards or a compactable board game
• Book
• Earplugs and eye mask (people snore and it won’t be a good sleep—so try everything you can to get that beauty sleep)

The last thing is to keep your things organized. You are sharing a very small space with strangers and things could get forgotten or mixed around. I thought I was missing something (thankfully, I am just dumb and I already packed it!). But I got lucky. Be organized and make sure you have control of your things or else it will be annoying to get it back.

xx

Jasmine